Coconut Bread

We love bread! And we miss bread! Because Brian isn’t supposed to be having grains I’ve been trying to remove it from most of what we eat on a daily basis. I didn’t realize how much grain, starches, and sugars we eat until I started removing it. We didn’t regularly have desserts, I don’t buy sugary cereals or snacks, never buy cookies, so it should be easy right? Nope… try again!

Sugar is in EVERYTHING! Literally… Ketchup, BBQ, canned foods, most sauces, salad dressings, breads, stir fry, most store bought breakfast items, juice, crackers, and so much more. And that doesn’t even include all the chemicals, preservatives and other food ingredients (can we even call it food?) that are in these processed foods.

I have been craving bread and crackers lately and was determined to find an alternative to both! And I’ve found a few that I’ve been able to alter to our taste! My absolute favorite (and the rest of the family too!) bread is the coconut bread. Not only is it delicious, but good for you too! I also found a recipe for almond bread and nut crackers that turned out great and will be a subject for a later post!

This bread is made with coconut flour which is basically dried coconut with the oil removed and then ground into flour. This flour is high in fiber and protein and is of course gluten free. It is, in fact, 58% fiber whereas wheat flour is only 27% fiber. It is also considered a low carbohydrate flour and even has fewer carbohydrates than some vegetables. Another benefit is that it adsorbs a lot of liquid so not only does it have fewer carbohydrates, but you use less of it than traditional flour. Being high in fiber, it gives you a sense of fullness so you don’t eat as much either.

Coconut flour can be used to replace flour in a lot of baking, but it takes some experimentation to get the measurements right. It is very heavy and dense and doesn’t rise very well if too much is used. It also doesn’t have that lightness to it like white flour does in breads. It does work very well for waffles, pancakes, muffins and some breads, but other baked items that need to be light and fluffy take a little more work and use other combinations of flours.

There are many other types of flour like xanthium gum, rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, which are all gluten-free, but still not on hubby’s diet, so I don’t even work with them. Since almond and coconut flours are lower carb that is what we stick with and use mostly. I also don’t like having 51 different types of flours in my pantry! These other types of flours do make good substitutes for making bread, rolls, and biscuits if you are just gluten free and not grain free.

So this bread is quite dense and after mixing all the ingredients together it looks like a thick pancake batter and NOT like bread dough! I always think I’ve done something wrong, but it always turns out! It is also very high in protein because of all the eggs in it. The end product is a little on the sweet side although there isn’t any white sugar in it. We do have it on the side for dinner sometimes or just for breakfast with a little butter on it. Delicious!

Preheat your oven to 350. Whisk it all together, or blend in a food processor until all lumps are gone. Grease a bread pan with butter or coconut oil and pour your batter in. Bake for 40 minutes.

Also, as you probably already noticed this bread doesn’t take any yeast which makes it a much easier bread to prepare as well. It also takes only about 15 minutes or less to mix it up and then 40 minutes to bake it. Wouldn’t it be nice to have fresh bread for dinner even after a busy day at work? It’s possible! Let me know how yours turns out and what you think about it!

Best prices I’ve found for the coconut flour is on Amazon, but they also have it in the natural section of Wegmans… It is more expensive there, but you can purchase it in smaller quantities to try it out! It isn’t an equal substitute for regular flour, so it takes some getting use to!